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Bush Seeks New, Central, Cabinet-Level Security Agency
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Bush
touted the initiative as the most far-reaching overhaul of the
U.S.
government since 1947.
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WASHINGTON,
June 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. President George W.
Bush urged Congress to create by 2003 a Cabinet-level homeland
security agency with the "urgent mission" of thwarting
terrorists like those who eluded U.S. intelligence to wage the
September 11 attacks.
"I
ask the Congress to join me in creating a single permanent department
with an overriding and urgent mission: securing the American homeland
and protecting the American people," Bush said late Thursday,
June 6, in a televised prime-time speech, Agence France-Presse
reported.
Bush
made the proposal as lawmakers forged ahead with a high-profile probe
into the CIA and FBI's mishandling of intelligence tied to the attacks
on the
World
Trade
Center
and the Pentagon. The CIA, FBI and other law enforcement
agencies were accused of having had enough information before
September 11 to thwart the suicide attacks.
"We
need to know when warnings were missed or signs unheeded -- not to
point the finger of blame, but to make sure we correct any problems,
and prevent them from happening again," said the U.S. President.
"Based
on everything I have seen, I do not believe anyone could have
prevented the horror of September 11. Yet we now know that thousands
of trained killers are plotting to attack us -- and this terrible
knowledge requires us to act differently," he said in the
13-minute speech.
While
the CIA and FBI -- both of which are making internal reforms -- would
remain independent agencies, the new department would act as a
clearinghouse for information and develop a "daily picture"
of terrorist threats at home.
"Analysts
will be responsible for imagining the worst and planning to counter
it," said Bush, who set outlines for the broad missions of the
new department:
- It will aim to keep terrorists and their weapons out of the
United States
while making travel more secure;
- It will work with state and local governments to
enhance emergency preparedness and response;
- It will devise ways to thwart attacks with
nuclear, chemical or biological weapons as well as treatments in the
event of such a strike.
- It will protect the nation's infrastructure from
terrorist attack.
Bush
touted the initiative as the most far-reaching overhaul of the
U.S.
government since then-president Harry Truman's 1947 consolidation of
the Army and Navy into the Defense Department and creation of the
National Security Council, changes wrought by the outbreak of the Cold
War.
"Truman's
reforms are still helping us to fight terror abroad, and now we need
similar dramatic reforms to secure our people at home," Bush
said.
Under
the proposal, the department will draw its 170,000 employees and 37
billion-dollar budget from roughly 100 government agencies, including
eight in the Cabinet -- a move certain to lead to inter-agency turf
and budget battles.
Bush
emphasized that by eliminating "duplication and overlap" at
the various agencies, "we will spend less on overhead and more on
protecting
America
."
The
new agency would shoulder all major federal border security powers --
including those of the Coast Guard, Customs Service, Immigration and
Naturalization Service and Border Patrol and the newly formed agency
in charge of airport security, the White House said in a statement.
The
Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as specialized segments
of the Energy Department and the Department of Health and Human
Services, would also fall under the new department's aegis.
The
U.S. Secret Service, which protects the President and other key
government officials, will see its central function unaltered, but
will answer to the new secretary.
Bush
could tap
Tom
Ridge
, the head of the White House's Office of Homeland Security, for that
post.
Bush
created Ridge's post in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but
had resisted until now creating a Cabinet-level department that as
such would have to answer to the U.S. Congress.
In
an interview with CNN's Larry King Live, Ridge later refused to say
whether he would accept the post. "I've got a job right now as an
adviser to the president, and one job at a time, Larry."
Ridge
said the new department “will become a consumer, become a
customer,” gathering the information of the FBI, CIA, “from the
INS, from Customs, from the Coast Guard, from the drug enforcement
authorities, from the state and local police.
“We'll
want them to pull in all that information and sort it out between
rumor and suspicion and fact and speculation and misinformation, and
do an assessment, do an analysis, and then communicate it -- if it's a
real threat ... to state and local governments.”
"Its
a step in the right direction," Senator Dianne Feinstein told CNN
after Bush's speech. "Its going to take a lot of discussion.
We'll have to look at all the pros and cons," she added.
But,
"There's been virtually no consultation," she said about
Bush's surprise announcement. "That's kind of a difficult way to
go."
"The
Senate believes in taking its time," she said, adding that a
careful study was required to avoid major mistakes that could be
unapparent for years.
The
New York Times agreed. "Congress must be careful not to create
new problems... One danger with the president's proposal is that it
might set up new rivalries in a bureaucracy already choking with
conflict."
"The
restructuring won't be easy," said the Wall Street Journal
Friday. "It is likely to produce angst in existing federal
bureaucracies, as well as turf battles between oversight committees on
Capitol Hill, some of which will lose influence over operations and
budgets."
"Duplication,
substitution for real reform, distraction -- those are some of the
risks Congress should weigh," said the Washington Post.
"Others will emerge as the proposal is examined. None should
provide an excuse for inaction, however."
While
there is a consensus that Congress will eventually approve the
creation of the Department of Homeland Security, some question the
president's timing in announcing it.
The
decision was announced as FBI director Robert Mueller mapped out the
reorganization of his bureau during testimony before a Congressional
investigating whether the FBI and CIA could have prevented the
September 11 attacks.
"Exploiting
the grandeur of the White House in prime time," wrote the Chicago
Tribune, "Bush moved decisively to shift the subject from
recrimination about administration failings."
The
New York Times stressed the coincidence between Bush's proposal and
Mueller's reorganization plan. "It did not look as if the two men
had coordinated their plans. The disharmony left the impression that
the White House had assembled its plan at the last minute."
Some
lawmakers assailed the office as unaccountable and impotent because it
lacked a budget or even authority over existing agencies whose efforts
were closely tied to Bush's "war on terrorism."
They
also expressed anger at the White House for refusing to have Ridge to
testify in open hearings.
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